Editor -- I have a personal response to
Ralph Nader
supporters who keep repeating the "vote your conscience, not your fears" theme. Twenty years ago, I helped spread that same message for an independent candidate named John Anderson. But on election day 1980, my fears came true, and to this day my conscience bothers me.

Jimmy Carter had many faults, but he still would have been better for our Supreme Court, our environment, and human rights than Ronald Reagan or George Bush. Does anyone really believe that Al Gore is "just the same" as George W. Bush on such issues as global warming or a woman's right to choose?

Nader is an American hero and the Green Party offers some of the best ideas for our future. Nevertheless, my conscience tells me to vote for Gore.

KIM FOGEL

Richmond

IT'S STILL THE ECONOMY

Editor -- Some of my Republican friends want to vote for George W. Bush in order to express their repudiation of President's Clinton's sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky. But, that isn't an issue that can be decided by November's election. Bill Clinton is leaving office no matter who wins. Al Gore didn't have an affair with Monica, and to be fair, neither did Bush. The issue this time is the economy. Shall the successful policies of the last eight years be allowed to continue, or should our economic prosperity be squandered by giving huge tax breaks to the very rich?

Bush keeps trying to besmirch Gore with Clinton's character. It won't stick. What would Bush have wanted Gore to do? If he had repudiated Clinton during the impeachment, his actions would be seen as self-serving. Moreover, such repudiation would have endorsed the Republican's invasion of personal privacy by the federal government. Al Gore does not stand for big government intrusion into people's private lives.

If Bush supporters think Gore's character is damaged because he received $5,000 from some Buddhists, how much worse is it that Bush and Cheney receive many, many millions from big oil, tobacco and gun companies?

BRUCE JOFFE

Oakland

THE 'REAL AL GORE'

Editor -- If Al Gore has been one of the most actively involved vice presidents in U.S. history, then why are both his campaign and the Democratic National Committee promising that we will see the "real Al Gore" in the next three months?

Shouldn't we have seen the "real Al Gore" for the past seven years? And I suppose, like the Bobby Ewing shower scene on "Dallas," the Buddhist temple fund-raiser (sorry, community outreach) and other fund- raising discrepancies are just dream sequences from the past seven years.

LISA MILLER

Orinda

'AMERICA 2000'

Editor -- When I was a child, I often wondered what America would look like in the year 2000. Wednesday, when I turned on my television news, I found out. The image in the corner of the screen clearly stated "America 2000," yet what I saw was nothing like I had envisioned. I saw black clad, helmeted, body-armored troops, marching down city streets, in formation, with clubs and tear gas canisters. I saw protesters being denied their right to protest. I saw people fleeing for their lives.

I saw politicians being coddled and pampered, as if some elite class, to be insulated from the bothersome voices of their very own constituents. I saw a 20-minute news report on the police department's high- tech ability to crush protesters in their tracks and not one minute on what the protesters actually had to say. I saw a government that fears its own citizens. MARK McCROCKLIN Studio City

IT'S JUST A PHASE

Editor -- In her Tuesday column ("They're Really Just Here for the Party"), Debra Saunders claims she is confused by the laundry list of causes and the differences of opinion among the protesters outside the Democratic convention. She forgets the fact that real democracy, unlike the slick PR pageant of the convention, is messy and inclusive. There are always exceptions, but most of the protesters went to the trouble of coming to the convention because they care passionately about something and are acting on their convictions, exhibiting a trait called integrity, that is ideally retained through adulthood.

It is understandable that Debra Saunders, her belly full of the NRA's food, felt the need to rationalize away the ebb of her own integrity as a maturation out of angry adolescence. Let's just be glad Ms. Saunders wasn't around to tell the "children of privilege" who participated in the civil rights movement that they were just going through a phase.

FAREWELL TO A CABBIE

Editor -- In the early morning hours of August 3, my good friend, John Michael Haggard, passed away at home from liver cancer.

John was a San Francisco native. He was born and raised on 43rd Avenue in the Sunset District and he graduated from Riordan High School. He was also a San Francisco Yellow Cab driver.

In a city where the taxi industry is in constant turmoil and the public complaining they can never get a cab, especially out in the neighborhoods, and that the drivers don't know where they are going, John was the exception.

John did know where he was going and the best way to get there. He was always out in the Sunset and Richmond districts picking up fares.

John was the type of cab driver that took elderly people to hospitals, dialysis clinics and supermarkets. He would also return to pick them up and take them safely back home.

As a taxi cab dispatcher, I really appreciated his professionalism and wished that all drivers were as conscientious.

San Francisco lost one of its finest sons and the taxicab business lost one of its best drivers. Many people will miss John's smiling face and good nature, especially me.

Thanks for everything, John. Rest in peace, Brother. The meter is off.

BRIAN "COZMO" HOYT

S.F. Yellow Cab Co. San Francisco

V-J DAY . . . FORGOTTEN

Editor -- It appears you forgot V-J Day . . . August 14. Nothing in the editorials, nothing in the general news coverage. Like the ending of the worst war never happened -- or do you consider it was over when Germany surrendered, and you covered that last June with stories of D-Day?

There's a lot of vets who suffered through Bataan, Corregidor, the island-hopping campaigns from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima; the young men on ships, in submarines and in the air who spent their young years as warriors. For some, it was all the years they had coming to them. My husband was lucky -- his sub came back.

On behalf of all our World War II veterans, I say, "Shame on you, Chronicle!" How could you overlook such an anniversary?

MIGDEN'S GAY-BAITING

Editor -- Assemblywoman Carole Migden should be ashamed of herself for trying to gay-bait Ralph Nader (Matier & Ross, August 16). Decades ago, when Nader first started exposing the danger in poorly-built American cars, the auto industry hired detectives to investigate his private life. They didn't come up with anything then, either. We can expect this type of behavior from corporate lunkheads. What's Migden's excuse?

ARTHUR EVANS

San Francisco

SPECIAL COMPOST

Editor -- Well, I know the owners of the San Francisco Independent like to boast they have the largest circulation of any free newspaper in the country, but are they counting the papers they throw that are decomposing in my driveway or rotting in my flower bed?

Incidentally, I have this tip for gardeners out there. I discovered this quite by accident. If you carefully cut out Warren Hinckle's column each week and spread it around your rose bushes, you will be surprised at the beautiful buds you will get. Works better than any manure you can buy. The trick is to keep the picture of Hinckle intact -- the fresher, the better.

Well, I'm certainly looking forward to the new Examiner. Imagine seeing Warren's face every day decomposing in your driveway or flower bed. Watch out, Chronicle. I don't think there's a columnist you have, or who you may acquire, that will have the fertilizing effect of Warren Hinckle.

GREGG STAUFFER

San Francisco

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